Tombstone, snake, fake leg among items in evidence

NORTHPORT | Deep in the bowels of the Northport Police Department is an ancient grave marker for a child who lived from Aug. 18, 1893, to Feb. 24, 1896.

His name was Wilfred J. Clemo, the son of J.L. and E.C. Clemo. An inscription on the stone reads: "A bud on earth transplanted to the paradise of God."

But there's more to the story, though the details are murky and mysterious.

The tombstone came into the possession of the police in March 1997, when then-Officer Janice Hagler found it on the side of 13th Street near an apartment complex.

Calls to area churches and cemeteries turned up no records. Neither did a daylong excursion by Investigator Tony McGee and Kay Chandler, the department's evidence custodian.

"I was kind of disappointed," Chandler said. "Some of the churches checked their records and didn't find anything.

"A lot of them didn't have a clue where [the records] were."

Lt. Kerry Card, the husband of now-Cpl. Janice Hagler and the spokesman for the Northport Police Department, said he has performed his own search for family members of Wilfred Clemo on the Internet.

So far, nothing has turned up.

"We're not ever going to give up on finding the owner of the stone," Card said. "The tombstone will be here until the proper owner comes forward to claim it, however long that may take."

Additional oddities

While a gravestone is an uncommon feature of most law enforcement evidence lockers, it certainly is not the only strange thing to be found at the Northport Police Department.

"This just becomes the repository of so many items that find their way here for a variety of reasons," Card said of the locker. "It's almost like walking into a pawnshop."

Somewhere in the neatly organized 40-by-20-foot room is a dead snake preserved in formaldehyde that is part of an ongoing investigation.

There also is a prosthetic leg, brought in by a Northport resident who found it. No foul play is suspected.

And two large coolers, one full of liquor and the other full of beer, are being stored in a corner until they are needed. Not for consumption, of course; for a criminal trial.

"You pretty much name it, and it's down here," Chandler said.

There are several suitcases "where people lost their clothes on the side of the road," Chandler said, along with the usual complement of seized drugs, electronics and stereo equipment, as well as an arsenal of firearms -- handguns, long guns and even a few assault weapons -- that were either seized as part of an investigation or turned in as lost property.

And the person who can pinpoint any of it within a matter of minutes is Chandler.

"We couldn't run without her," Card said.

Keeper of the kingdom

For the past four years, Chandler has served as the evidence custodian for the Northport Police Department.

But law enforcement hasn't been her lifelong career.

Her first job, she said, was as a waitress. Since then, she has worked in the medical field, nursing homes and a plethora of other jobs.

"I guess I just took a step in every direction," Chandler said.

In 1998, she began working with the Northport police documenting surveillance performed for criminal investigations. Three years later, Chief J.W. Galloway and Capt. Sharon Crowder, who heads the department's Criminal Investigation Division, asked Chandler to take over the evidence locker.

She is responsible for making sure a paper trail follows every item that comes into the evidence locker, the most secure room in the department.

Only two others besides Chandler know the electronic key code that unlocks the door. Not even Galloway knows how the get in there.

Chandler is also known to track down officers who incorrectly document the items dropped into the lockers that, once secured, can be accessed only by Chandler or one of her assistants.

She is serious because what she takes into that room may be the difference between conviction and acquittal.

"You've got to make sure you've got it right, because that's something that can make or break a case," Chandler said.

Every person who enters has to sign a logbook.

Each item is categorized by case number, and the rack, shelf and location are punched into a computer for quick reference.

Should an attorney or officer need an item for a trial, an extensive documentation process takes place. If something is not returned, the person responsible is easily found.

And in her four years as evidence custodian, nothing has ever disappeared, she said.

"If you don't have someone who understands how it works, it's not going to function as designed," Card said. "It has to be 100 percent right. And it is."